Foundational Cracks (Legislative branch).

Continued from A1...

     The checks and balances between branches has eroded. The bottle neck within the legislative branch has been all but plugged due to a partisan divide, which elected officials refuse to break and leading to a complete stall out of government within the country.

1. We set the retirement age of the average American worker at 65 years of age. Yet, those within our government are: Biden 78, McConnell 79, Pelosi 80, Schumer 70, Sanders 79, Trump 74. It’s time to set a retirement age for those who serve in public office. Beginning with the 2022 midterm elections, anyone currently serving within government over the age of 70 should be forced to retire and not allowed to hold office. If we deem the average Americans body and mind to be unfit to work a job, why do we allow people over the age of 65 to serve in office?

2. The party lines which the legislative branch is divided must be broken down. We propose breaking the branch into a discrete house and senate chambers with a hyper-focus on what laws they govern. The chambers single focused laws are then sent to the executive branch for approval. Essentially, the country has grown too large and too complex for one body to control the laws which govern certain pillars of our society.

     The “one group controls all” monopoly puts the voter in a bad position. Voters are forced to pick a single issue and vote solely on that. Someone may agree with AOC on social justice, but not with her on financial policy. They will never vote for her due to this contrast. This cripples the ability to pass Social Justice reform laws as it becomes a stalemate between parties and the public suffers, because the issues that we face never get addressed. Furthermore, the “one group controls all” makes it hard for Congress members to be fully informed on the issues that they are voting on. It makes the work load on their staff extremely difficult and you end up with more issues. Which we saw in 2020 when Congress was handed a 5,000 plus page bill with only 5 hours to read and understand it.

     Note: it’s not 1776 any more. It doesn’t take a fortnight to travel from Georgia to DC. Majority of the duties can be done remotely or congress members can fly in the night before the vote. Also, as we work through and solve issues, the majority of the pillars can be reduced down to titles only. It does not mean we dissolve the sub-branches. It just means the members can enter into a holding pattern until they have another issue to address.

3. Laws should be single issue and in plain words so that the average American can understand them. No more riders. No more amendments. No more pork barreling money. No more Earmarks. No more logrolling. Reform the government by cutting the cancer which is rotting out.

4. Lobbyist, Super PACs, PACs (dirty money) can easily be removed by making public funding available to candidates during campaigns. Having a joint deal with telecommunications networks to broadcast and give equal uninterrupted air time to each candidate.